A WEEK'S MEMOIRS (on getting sick and Sunday worship)

Early Monday morning I tried to finalize the worship song selection for Sunday (today, 020809) after spending some time praying and reading Acts 16:22-40 which is the basis for the sermon by the Senior Pastor.

Tuesday night around 10PM, after dinner and coffee with one of my students in worship studies class together with the Bible college chaplain, I sat on my bed with my Bible opened to the same passage, and felt I needed to revise my worship song selection. I did. I was excited with how the Lord impressed upon me which songs to choose and somewhat do away with the one I prepared earlier. I went to bed around 1AM, with my throat beginning to feel a bit hoarse.

Wednesday morning, I woke up with clogged nose and a speaking voice like Yoda's. The cold virus has incubated through the night. I still had enough strength to jog and walk, but I exhausted my energy that morning so I struggled to go to the office. At work, I gave 'orders' for the songs to be put on slides and sheet music to be prepared for Saturday reharsals. I have prepared some songs earlier for Midweek service, but as the day progressed, I was beginning to lose my voice. Before evening fell fever has also set in. I asked for someone else to lead worship in our Midweek service. On my way home, I stopped by the drugstore to get myself some meds hoping I wouldn't collapse or anything. After I eaten dinner at the mall I asked a relative to pick me up and bring me home. Too busy and only able to be done with commitments after 9, I was advised to rest in the cinema! I chose the film Doubt and slept through it. I hoped to get well before Saturday as I had to sing at a wedding, and lead worship on Sunday, attend my godchild, Ethan's birthday, and facilitate the Boys Talk at FBC's retreat.

I again struggled to rise and be at Faith Bible College to teach- it was submission day of a major paper so I had to be there. and receive papers. After the last of the papers done that day, I went home and arrived severely sick ending up calling someone else to help lead Sunday's worship. Tita Boots of 4Word was so helpful in troubleshooting and damage control in the worship ministry caused by my sudden sickness. I rested all day Thirsday and Friday, and Saturday and today!

Fever broke late in the afternoon yesterday as I listened to classical sacred music while reading Twilight which was lent to me by one of ministry assistants at church, Minneli.

I'm feeling a lot better than I did the past couple of days. My voice is still hoarse, I still have some occasional headaches and struggling with cold. But I'm recuperating, thank God and those who consistently prayed for me over the last several days.

This morning, I got word that worship in church was absolutely amazing with a beautiful sense of God's presence by the people. I received text messages and calls about it. Migs Orleans, Cindy Camungao and 4Word are eing used by God to minister to His people's hearts through worship leadership and ultimately glorifying His name through all that's happened.

The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

GETTING HIGH!

Earlier, feeling really sick and realizing I'm out of medicines, I forced myself to stand and go to the nearest drugstore three blocks away to get some. I kept praying that God would sustain me as I walked to and from the store. He did. He even supplied the strength for me to get some breakfast, and canned chicken soup for later.

Now I'm in bed with computer on my lap, trying to get some rest. I hate getting sick, especially flu- drowsy, nauseus, cold. In my whole life, I've never once tried alcohol or drugs, but I guess I now know how it's like to feel having had some-- the funny and weird feeling, the normal yet strange effect of the meds I'm taking!

As I tried to browse for some youtube videos on flu, first-aid and medicines, I stumbled upon this video from Travis' facebook page of a father videotaping his son's reaction to medicines after a visit to the dentist. This video is hilarious!

Benny Lavas writes: This is my 7 year old son who had an extra tooth removed last summer, 2008. I had the camera because he was so nervous before I wanted him to see before and after.

He was so out of it after, I had to carry him out of the office. The staff was laughing and I had tears it was so funny.

He is doing fine now and the teeth are great.

Best of all he is the best kid as his brother William. I couldnt have asked for two better sons!

TWO PARALYTICS BY THE SAME POOL

Every Monday morning throughout my early gradeschool days I developed the habit of retelling stories I heard from Sunday School to my wide-eyed classmates who were always eager to hear what I had to share.

There are stories I remember from my early Sunday School days that never cease to fascinate me, especially those that contained anything supernatural- Moses and the parting of the Red Sea, Jesus feeding the five thousand, Elijah and the widow's "bottomless" oil and flour, Jesus rising from the dead.

One story that stands out is the healing of the paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda in John 5! Before it was destroyed in 70AD by the legions of the Roman general Titus, the pool of Bethesda was located on the eastern side of the city near the Fortress of Antonia. Bethesda means "house of mercy." The water source was a nearby spring. According to the Bible there was a local tradition that an angel moved the waters at certain times and anyone who jumped into it while it is angelically stirred was healed.

A paralytic man layed beside the pool for 38 long years. Since he was a paralytic, he couldn't get into the pool when the water is believed to be stirred by the angel. And so, the paralytic pitifully spent 38 years of his life lying at that poolside and perhaps seen hundreds of people get healed! Jesus came, spoke to the man and with just spoke the following words (verse 8) "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk!" Immediately, he rose, picked up his bed and walked. Can you just imagine how that site could overwhelm anyone?

Jesus heals. If he can heal then, he can heal now- according to God's will. There are prayers that get answered, there are prayers that don't. It's all in God's hands, but He supplies the grace people need!

A couple of thousand years later, Joni Eareckson Tada was a teenager when in a diving accident in 1967 suffered an injury that has left her a quadriplegic since. In her despair and self pity, she prayed that God would take her life and cease her agony. As a Christian, she was tempted to and gave into going to every faith healing crusade. A Faith Healing evangelist encouraged her to claim for herself John5 and believe that one day she'll be well. That didn't do anything other that to devastate her all the more! Did she lack the faith that could make her walk again? Does God really love her? But her handicap provided way for her to be a witness to God's grace and goodness despite her limitations.

At the Moody Founders Week sometime ago, she shared a moving story.

In 2005- 38 years since her accident, she visited Israel and was wheeled into what used to be the location of the famous Pool of Bethesda. As she observed the area and recalled the Bible story, all she was able to say was, "...when I looked at that pool, I thanked God that He had not heal me in those 38 years because of all the grace and all the ministry that He gave me as a result of my infirmity."1

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Incidentally, when I began typing this, I was all bundled up. I had come home from the Church Office with fever and was chilling. I had to ask somebody else to lead the singing in our Midweek Service because my throat is sore. It still is. I still have diffculty breathing due to cold, but the fever is gone!

No question that, while walking the earth, Jesus was known as a wonderful healer. In all of the current squabbles among scholars concerning the real identity and character of the historical Jesus, most agree that, in his day, he was widely known and highly regarded as a healer. Well, He is God-Man and, his healing often functioned in a seemingly subversive manner given that his reach touched the least, the last, and the lost. He was indiscriminate in who he might heal, or who he might forgive for that matter. Often, it was the outcast- an amazing picture of grace- Christ extending healing to anyone who needed/needs it!

Pray for me. I need to get well soon and regain my speaking and singing voice- I have a wedding to be at on Saturday, a birthday dinner on Friday, worship leading on Sunday, and a retreat to be at on Monday! Or God could be saying, "Slow Down! Take a Sabbath!"

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1 Dr Erwin Lutzer, When the Answer is Denied, Moody Memorial Church 020109

CALLED AND CHANGED

One cannot say Yes to God and remain the same. We say that change is the byword for those who in some manner have heard God’s voice calling them out.

Of course, that’s one reason a lot of folks have trouble listening or saying yes, precisely because they sense change is the name of the game and they have no intention of changing, thank you.

The story of Jonah puts an ironic twist on this equation. I read a snippet of his colorful story this morning. When Jonah hears God’s instruction to go to Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, with a message of repentance, he turns and runs in the opposite direction. But in a great storm Jonah is tossed into the sea and swallowed by a great fish that deposits him on dry land; once again he’s set on a path toward Nineveh. This was the capital city of the most aggressive and brutal power of the day. And it was big – we read that it took three days to walk across it.

Jonah then delivers the shortest sermon on record, and lo and behold, the people of Nineveh repent, which we later learn angers Jonah, who confesses that this is the reason he didn’t want to go there in the first place. He says, “That is why I fled at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and ready to relent from punishing.” [1]

In other words, Jonah did not want to participate in the change God intended, which had something to do with the nature of God’s redemption- mercy and grace to all who will receive. He did not want the Assyrians included among those God cared about. God’s mercy ticked him off., which happens to us sometimes. Note that from one vantage point, there was a political outcome to Jonah’s mission. Nineveh, the major threat to Israel, was spared. [2]

God calls and things change. When Jesus called his first followers, they were changed. The message of the good news changes people. This good news of God- consistent with the news Jonah was meant to bring to Nineveh – God’s redemption for those who would turn around and change. Indeed, Jesus was himself the living embodiment of God’s redemption – that’s the extremely radical, disruptive message we peddle in here. Walking along the lakeshore Jesus sees the fishermen Simon and Andrew, James and John and calls to them to follow along his path. “Follow me and I will make you fish for people,” which they learned as the story unfolds, has personal-political-social-spiritual ramifications.

But you see, one can’t go around fishing on behalf of the kingdom of God and not rile the ranks of the kingdom of men. There’s an inherent competition for authority.[3] As in, is God the principal ruler or Caesar? Who’s in charge after all? And what are the implications of assigning authority to one or the other? This very question led to Jesus’ execution as an enemy of the state, John the Baptist's beheading, and Elijah's hiding.

And yet, we see the implications for those who would follow the path, stretching out for hundreds of years, playing out in the lives like John Wesley and William Wilberforce and John Newton and Abe Lincoln and Martin Luther King and your pastor, as well as many other women and men who listened to and were transformed by the good news of God.

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Awit ng Umaga. Some folks from one of our Worship Teams at church have formed a band they call, LAYAG. It's cool to see these musicians trained and exposed in church go mainstream proudly wearing their Christian faith on their sleeves, and hopefully become witnesses to Christ's grace. Gayle on vocals, Brian on keys, Janny on percs, Lance on drums, Yuna on bass, and Gabe on guitar. Everyone except for the latter, grew up in GCF. With the help of another guy from church, Gino Jose, the group releases its first video featuring an original composition by Gayle, Awit ng Umaga (literally, Song of the Morning or Morning Song).

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1 Jonah 4:2

2 Steve Bauman CCUMC-NYC, 012509

3 ibid

WHAT DRIVES YOUR WORSHIP?

What is worship? It is a good question.

When you took that worship survey last year, you requested a sermon dealing with that question. Worship is the most important thing that a human being can do. It is the zenith of what it really means to be human. Worship is the most important thing we will do this week. Even if we should discover the cure for cancer on Wednesday. Worship is the most important thing the church does. So, we had better get it right, shouldn't we?

But there is a heresy afoot in the church that makes it tough to get worship right. The heresy is this: the creeping tendency to replace the doctrine of the sovereignty of God with the sovereignty of the congregation. Which translates into, 'Hey, let's do worship in ways that make us feel good.' Ways we like, rather than what necessarily pleases God.

So, if you and I are going to get worship right, we had better start by asking ourselves a question. The question is this: "Is worship primarily for us, or primarily for God?" If we are going to get worship right, we had also better get our grammar straight. Worship is not a noun. It is not something that we go to. It is not something we attend. It is not something we observe. Worship is a verb. It is something that you and I do. Which means that we can go to church and not necessarily worship. It means that we can show up in the sanctuary Sunday after Sunday; but in reality, be totally absent from worship. If we are going to get worship right, we ought to go to those places where we find what authentic God-pleasing worship looks like.

One of the best places to do that is in the fifteenth chapter of Revelation.

And I saw what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and over the number of his name. They held harps given them by God and sang the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb: "Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the ages. Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed."1

What exactly is worship?

Let me begin by telling you that first of all, worship is a victim. It is a victim of our culture. I want to hit on at least four aspects of our culture, four cultural influences that tend to seduce you and me continually; do a job on us, moving us from what authentic worship is, to what I would call pseudo-worship.

We live in an entertainment-driven culture. Everywhere we go today, we expect to be entertained. Even if you are alone in an elevator there is music playing. We want to be continually on the edge of our seats. We want to be made to laugh. So we have remote control switches and we hit the buttons until those things are a part of what is happening. We want to be entertained. We expect it, and if we are not careful, even as committed Christians we can tend to bring that quest for entertainment into a place like this on Sunday morning. "Here I am God. Entertain me!"

You see, God will only receive worship that is authentic. Worship that is pleasing to Him. Is worship all about being entertained?

If we worship with the whole church and our quest is chiefly to be entertained, then I think we have missed the boat as to what worship is all about. As a worship pastor I know that a lot of folks come on Sunday morning wanting to be entertained. So, I must admit, people in my position are always, always tempted to supplant the sovereignty of God with the sovereignty of the congregation and try to do a stand-up comedy act, or be a storyteller rather than a preacher of the word and a worship leader.

We live in a therapeutic culture. The mantra of that culture is 'something's wrong, fix me.' While there is truth to the fact that we need a lot of fixing, getting "fixed" is a by-product of authentic encounter with God in Jesus Christ. We are all finding out that we are dysfunctional. The Bible said that from the very beginning. We are told to search out our inner child, and then hook up with therapies that will bring healing into our lives. There is nothing wrong with seeking after healing. The problem arises when we take legitimate desire for healing and begin to make that the focus of worship. 'God , make me better' replaces 'Praise you Lord'. When that is the case, then our worship is what needs healing.

We live in a highly politicized culture. The Christian faith can and does speak to every issue of human existence. Our faith ought to be the primary thing that shapes our politics. But often times, it is vice versa. Often times you can wander into a church and wonder if you have stumbled into a political rally rather than a service of worship. Whenever political ideology - be it from the right or the left -- supplant the Word of God, which overshadows and judges all political human endeavors; when the Word of God is supplanted by political ideology, then you might have a political pep rally, but you are not worshiping.2

We live in a consumer-oriented culture. Where everything is, 'Me, me, me...' Worship is really all about me, right? Fix me. Entertain me. Make me feel good. Pump me up. Recharge my batteries. Make me feel better. And if you don't, I'll go down the street to the church that does. Or I'll find another god who will revolve around me."

When me-centered, human-centered worship is what a church is all about, they really are a part of the cult of narcissism; not the Church of Jesus Christ.

So, what does authentic worship really look like?

What is worship? This text before us gives us a few significant pointers as to what authentic worship looks like.

Authentic God-pleasing worship is God centered. It is God focused. At the funeral of Louis XIV, perhaps France's greatest king ever, the cathedral was packed out with mourners. The funeral was held at night time, and the only light in that vast cathedral was one lone candle right by the casket containing the mortal remains of that great monarch. At the appointed time, the court preacher got up to address the assembled clergy and the dignitaries of France. He ascended the pulpit and then he reached out from the pulpit and snuffed out that lone candle which symbolized the greatness of the king. And then in total darkness he uttered four words, "Only God is great."3

Worship has got to be based on the sovereignty of God. Only God is great. Only God is worthy; worthy to be worshiped.

Authentic worship is always a response. It is always a response to victory. The victory that God has won for us in Jesus Christ.

If you are a Christian, you are on the winning team. Victory is yours and mine. So, we come here Sunday after Sunday to celebrate victory. Not our victories. The victory that is ours in Christ Jesus alone.4

We need to lose ourselves in these adjectives if we are going to truly worship this morning. Adjectives that describe who God is. Almighty. King of the ages. Holy. Adjectives that describe what he has done for you and me in Christ Jesus. His ways are just and true. Marvelous and great. Righteous.

As you and I lose ourselves in those adjectives describing who God is and what he has done for us; as we lose ourselves in understanding of who God is, and the fact that he is here. It is then that we become awesomely overwhelmed with the reality. That is the presence of God. When you and I are bowled over by the loving, gracious, holy, magnificent presence of God, it is then that all of those desires to be entertained, and fixed, and coddled, and to be in control begin to dissipate and you and I begin to worship in spirit and in truth.

So you see, worship always begins on a note of victory as we come into a place like this, and then turn our heads, and our hearts, and our entire beings over to this God who has revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ and through his mighty acts in Christ. That is what true worship is all about.

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1 Revelation 15:2-4 NIV

2 Dr. Ron Scates, CentralPC Baltimore, MD, June 1999

3 Ibid

4 Ibid

5 Worship Starter Video of GCF (How Can I Keep from Singing by Chris Tomlin)